Monday, 12 December 2011

It's been a week since I've updated this... Oops...

Life's been a bit hectic with essays and travelling, but I'm back in Norfolk for the holidays now! I took a little detour on the way home to see Coldplay in the O2 on Friday, which was AMAZING (caps justified) and now I have a radio-controlled glowing wristband (which doesn't glow anymore- boo).

Hmm, I haven't done too much since being back really, just Christmas decorations at my parents' house. It's all the same as usual here though, although the cat's got fatter. 'It's just fluff!' No... No it's not..

Tuesday, 6 December 2011

I have looked into it and it turns out that I appear to have magical divine powers. How did I come to this conclusion you ask? Well, twice today (Twice!) when I walked out of the door it stopped raining. And let me tell you, it was a lot of rain too, and I feel that this is clearly more than a coincidence. So anyway, you are WELCOME Penryn.

I'll be taking donations and accepting worship at my place of lodging up until Friday.

Sunday, 4 December 2011

I'm quite aware that despite this blog being mainly designed around my writing exploits, that I don't actually have any examples of my writing on here. Oops.

Realising this, I rummaged around the depths of my laptop and unearthed the first story we had to write for my course last year... I figure that I'll post it here as it's not too long, and is at a vaguely passable standard!

So here it is, a contemporary version of 'The Three Little Pigs':

The Three Squatters

Once upon a time there were three squatters. They all lived together in a small house that did not belong to them on the outskirts of London, where they survived by scrounging food and other essentials off of their oblivious neighbours. This happy life was to be short lived, however, and the day came when there was an ominous jangling of keys outside of the front door. The third squatter, who happened to be walking past heard the noise and realised that it was the owner of the house returning from their long break.

With a small yelp the squatter ran into the kitchen where his friends were playing cards. He quickly explained what was happening and urged them to hurry and gather their belongings so that they could leave swiftly.

A few minutes later they clambered unceremoniously out of the kitchen window and fled down the street followed only by the shriek of shock that emerged from the house as the owner saw the mess that had been left.

The squatters walked together for the rest of the day hoping to stumble upon good fortune and find a place for them to live. That day they were unsuccessful in their search. They slept that night in the shelter of a subway while people walked past and gave disapproving looks at their huddled forms.

By the time the sun rose in the morning the trio was ready to go (the only change in state was that they were now vertical instead of horizontal). They stepped out of the subway and stood blinking in the sunlight for a short while before continuing on their way. They walked for a long while, but it was late morning when the first squatter suddenly stopped and stared thoughtfully to a building to the side of the path. He called out to the other two and told them that he had found somewhere to live.

The building he was looking at turned out to be a derelict house that was surrounded by a metal fence. When the second squatter asked how he planned to live there the first replied:

‘It will be perfect! Nobody will think to bother me and I shall be able to live in peace!’ With this, he climbed over the fence and was lost to view as he entered the building whistling cheerfully.

The remaining two squatters continued walking down the street, now more motivated to discover a place of their own. By the time mid-afternoon had arrived they seemed no closer to having shelter for the night. The third squatter turned to talk to the second but suddenly realised that he was no longer walking beside him. He looked behind and saw that his companion was looking inside a building that they had just passed. When he approached he saw that what had caught his eye was a row of machines filled with copper coins that seemed to be impossibly floating off of a ledge.

‘This is where I shall live.’ The second squatter said, ‘There is money that I can live off of and shelter and good company.’

The third squatter sighed as he watched the second walk into the building. He continued walking, alone, for the rest of the afternoon until the amount of buildings around him dwindled and became further apart from each other. It was now becoming dark and he began to think that he would never find somewhere suitable to live.

The squatter slipped through a damaged wooden fence and found himself in a fairground. Curious, he walked around looking at all of the attractions which had now closed for the day. Suddenly he looked up and saw something that made his heart swell with joy. In front of him stood an impressive looking building with a sign outside saying ‘Haunted House’. He ran joyfully towards it and vaulted the barrier outside before walking inside to find a place to sleep.

‘This will be the perfect place to live.’ He said to himself. ‘There is food sold outside and nobody will think to search inside this house.’

He eventually found a secluded spot to lie down in and within a few minutes was asleep.

The next morning the first squatter was cooking some sausages on a stove that he had discovered when he heard a strange noise. It sounded like a bear growling a long way off, but before he had time to consider what a bear would be doing in London a giant iron ball smashed into the roof and knocked a shower of tiles and rubble all around. The squatter shouted in fear and ran outside where he was greeted by the sight of a large vehicle preparing for another strike at the house. Without warning, the engine suddenly cut off and the machine shuddered to a halt. Out of a door hopped a short man wearing a hard yellow hat. He began to shout angrily at the squatter who could do nothing but listen to it.

It was unfortunate for the squatter that a policeman was walking nearby who heard the shouting. He approached the man in the yellow hat and began to talk to him whilst the squatter looked on. After a few minutes the policeman came up to him and said:

‘Look here, son, I am Constable Wolfe and you are under arrest for trespassing.’

And thus the first squatter was arrested due to being to rash in his decision.

The night arrived and the second squatter climbed out from his hiding place. He drew near one of the machines that had caught his attention the previous day and peered thoughtfully at it. He took two steps back then ran and shunted it with his shoulder. There was a crash as the coins fell down into a tray underneath, but this was not the only noise as there were suddenly sirens sounding from every direction. The squatter stood helplessly until a policeman opened the door and placed some handcuffs around his wrists.

Saturday, 3 December 2011

I went to see the Penryn Christmas lights being turned on today. Well, I say that, but my housemate and me were slightly late so they were already on when we got there, but I think we still got most of the effect anyway! I meant to post a picture of them on here, but I've lost the cable that connects to my phone, so can't...

Anyway, we got home and finally got around to putting up the Christmas tree (which is another picture I can't show you, but be assured that it's deliciously festive and would probably cause you to weep with joy upon seeing it) so now the living room feels nice and homely. It did make me want to eat mince pies though. Which we have none of. Which is sad.

I'm not gonna write a long post today because I've been working on my Cultural Theory essay alllllll day and am a bit worn out- but on a brighter note, it's FINISHED! I can finally put it out of my mind and focus on more exciting, creative type things instead! Huzzah!

I'll leave you with a link to my favourite Christmas song, which fits perfectly with the topic of this post:Right here!

Thursday, 1 December 2011

It's December now; the month of Christmas decorations, Christmas songs, Christmas lights, and, well, Christmas I guess... On the topic of Christmas songs, we were listening to 'Last Christmas' by Wham in my house earlier, and I think I figured out what George Michael was on about...

Basically, he is actually a ghost and is upset because before he died he was a organ doner and his heart was transplanted into someone else. That person then died the next day in some sort of Christmas-related accident (Those fairy lights are deadly, y'know) and because they were also an organ doner the heart was transplanted into someone else! The bit about 'next year' is revealling George's plan to take the heart back and give it to a more worthy holder using his supernatural abilities...

Tuesday, 29 November 2011

Well I'm sitting here by myself because my housemates have buggered off somewhere, thinking about life with the TV on watching a QI episode I saw earlier today. I could get up and change the channel, but the remote is broken and the button on the box itself is broken and barely works... Fun, huh?

It's at times like this when I'm reinforcing my knowledge with the help of Mr Fry, that I consider the possiblity that perhaps I should do something more constructive with my time. Very often the possibility is dismissed and I put it out of my mind then go grab a packet of crisps or something, but occasionally I switch off the set, grab a pen and paper (or my graphics tablet) and sit doodling for a couple of hours.

What emerges is very rarely a great pice of art (or barely art at all to be honest), but it really helps to frame a specific image of a location, object or character that I may have been thinking about recently. I won't actually be... posting any of these drawings by the way... Nobody has ever seen my awful sketches really- they're literally just lines on a page, and to the outside eye would really not make any sense, especially looking at some of the landscapes I've designed. But you never know! If I manage one that looks vaguely acceptable, it may appear another day!

Anyway, give it a go if you've been abandoned one day, it's genuinely very helpful! But I'm off now to go make myself appear clever by answering all the questions on the TV. Ciao!

Monday, 28 November 2011

Well here I am, making a second foray into the realm of updated blog-type-website-things. If you count my Twitter and Facebook too I think I'm actually starting to become a quite well established presence on the web!

But yes, this blog shall primarily deal with my writing projects rather than anything else in particular. I may still post random crap (basically using this as an extended Twitter then) though, so that's something to look forwards too... I'll also update it (hopefully) once a day so there should usualy be something new here to take a peek at!

Anyway, this is just a short introduction post so I'll stop here for now. Something new tomorrow- how exciting!